The FTSE 100 rose 7.23 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,921.63
at the close in London, erasing an earlier decline of as much as
0.4 percent. The equity benchmark has rallied more than 13
percent from its lowest level this year on June 1 as the
European Central Bank announced an unlimited bond-buying plan
and the Federal Reserve began a third round of asset purchases.
The broader FTSE All-Share Index also gained 0.1 percent today,
while Ireland’s ISEQ Index lost 0.5 percent.

“The news this weekend over Monti is a clear negative,”
said Valentijn van Nieuwenhuijzen, head of strategy at ING
Investment Management in the Hague, said in a Bloomberg
Television interview. “The question is if over the next couple
of weeks we get confirmation that public support remains for a
relatively stable government.”

In Italy, Monti told President Giorgio Napolitano that he
will resign as soon as Parliament approves the country’s budget.
Berlusconi’s People of Liberty will back the government in the
vote, according to the party’s general secretary. The 76-year-old former prime minister announced on Dec. 8 that he will
contest the premiership in elections due as early as February
next year.

Chinese Industry

In China, reports from the statistics bureau showed
industrial production climbed 10.1 percent last month, while
retail sales jumped 14.9 percent. Economists had predicted
growth of 9.8 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively, according
to the median forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.

Even so, a separate release showed that exports expanded at
a slower pace than projected, rising 2.9 percent in November
from a year earlier.

Smith & Nephew

Standard Chartered Plc rose 0.8 percent to 1,497.5 pence
after the lender agreed to pay U.S. regulators $327 million to
settle claims that its transactions with Iranian clients
violated U.S. sanctions. Britain’s second-largest bank told
investors on Dec. 6 it expected to pay about $330 million.

ENRC fell 2.4 percent to 276.2 pence as it bid $550 million
for the 49.5 percent of Camrose Resources that it doesn’t
already own. The mining company has interests in copper and
cobalt licenses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Greggs dropped 2.9 percent to 472.5 pence, its biggest
decline in two months. The U.K.’s largest chain of bakers said
McMeikan will join Brakes Group as CEO. Greggs said McMeikan
will remain in his job until the company finds a replacement.

WPP, Bumi

WPP Plc retreated 1.1 percent to 860 pence. Deutsche Bank
AG lowered its recommendation on the world’s biggest advertising
company to hold from buy, saying that sales will grow at a
slower pace in 2013 than the company has forecast.

Bumi Plc slipped 1.2 percent to 272 pence as the Bakrie
Group said that some documents used to justify an investigation
into the coal producer were stolen or accessed by hacking. Bumi,
which was founded by the Bakrie family and Nathaniel Rothschild
two years ago, began a probe on Sept. 24 into “potential
financial and other irregularities” at the company’s Indonesian
operations.